The Gazette (Montreal)
OCLC number 456824368 | | |
Website | montrealgazette |
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The Gazette, also known as the Montreal Gazette, is a Canadian English-language
, Canada.It is the only English-language daily newspaper currently published in its eponymous city. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of the 20th century. It is one of the French-speaking province's last two English-language dailies; the other is the
Founded in 1778 by Fleury Mesplet, The Gazette is Quebec's oldest daily newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in Canada.[3][circular reference] The oldest newspaper overall is the English-language Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which was established in 1764 and is published weekly.
History
Fleury Mesplet founded a French-language weekly newspaper called La Gazette du commerce et littéraire, pour la ville et district de Montréal on June 3, 1778.[4] It was the first entirely French-language newspaper in Canada.[4] The paper did not accept advertising aside for the various books that Mesplet also published. The articles were meant to promote discussion, and it focused on literature and philosophy, as well as various anecdotal articles, poems and letters.[4] Benjamin Franklin encouraged Mesplet to found the newspaper to persuade Canadians to join the American Revolution.[5] A secret resolution of Congress dispatched Mesplat and his printing equipment to Canada in February 1776 "to establish a free press...for the frequent publication of such pieces as may be of service to the cause of the United Colonies."[6] Mesplet, an immigrant from France, had previously lived in Philadelphia and supported the Americans when they occupied Montreal during the war. The newspaper was shut down in 1779 when Mesplet and the editor, Valentin Jautard, were arrested for sedition and imprisoned for three years.
Mesplet began a second weekly, The Montreal Gazette / La Gazette de Montréal, on August 25, 1785, which had a dual French-English bilingual format similar to that used by the
Following Mesplet's death, his widow published the newspaper for several issues, but the paper ceased publication soon after. Two rivals, Louis Roy and Edward Edwards fought over the right to publish the newspaper over the course of two years.[7] Edwards eventually won the printing press and newspaper and continued operations until his assets were seized in 1808.[7] The newspaper was then the property of James Brown for fourteen years. In 1822, it was sold to businessman Thomas Andrew Turner who converted into an English-only paper in 1822.[3][7] Under Turner, The Gazette identified with the interests of anglophone business leaders in their fight with the Patriote movement.[7]
On April 25, 1849, The Gazette published a special edition in which its editor-in-chief,
In 1939, The Gazette hired its first editorial cartoonist – John Collins, who worked a term of 43 years.[10]
In 1968, The Gazette was acquired by the Southam newspaper chain, which owned major dailies across Canada.[3]
For many years, The Gazette was caught in a three-way fight for the English newspaper audience in Montreal with the tabloid
In 1988, a competing English-language daily, the Montreal Daily News, was launched. The Montreal Daily News adopted a tabloid format and introduced a Sunday edition, forcing The Gazette to respond. After the Montreal Daily News closed in 1989, after less than two years in operation, The Gazette kept its Sunday edition going until August 2010.
In 1996, the Southam papers were bought by
To celebrate its 150th anniversary, The Gazette published a facsimile of one of its earliest issues. Much effort was made to use a type of paper that imitated 18th century paper, with fake chainlines and laidlines to make the paper look old.[12]
Today
Today, The Gazette's audience is primarily Quebec's English-speaking community. The Gazette is one of the three dailies published in Montreal, the other two being French-language newspapers:
In recent years, The Gazette has stepped up efforts to reach bilingual francophone professionals and adjusted its coverage accordingly. The current editor-in-chief is Lucinda Chodan. The deputy editor is Basem Boshra and the associate managing editor is Jeff Blond.[1]
On April 30, 2013,
On October 21, 2014, The Gazette was relaunched as part of the Postmedia Reimagined project, adopting a similar look, and a similar suite of digital platforms, to its sister paper, the Ottawa Citizen, which had relaunched earlier in the year. As part of the relaunch, the paper was officially renamed the Montreal Gazette, reflecting its longstanding common name outside its city of publication (as well as its Web domain, montrealgazette.com). The paper had not included Montreal in its masthead in several years.[16]
With its December 1, 2023 issue, The Gazette once again dropped "Montreal" from its masthead and returned to its pre-2014 name and logo.[17]
Sections
Weekdays
- Section A — Local, national and international news, opinion columns, editorials, editorial cartoon, letters to the editor, business news, sports news, arts and entertainment news
- Section B — Sports (Mondays and Thursdays), Business (Tuesdays), Food (Wednesdays), Movies (Fridays)
- Section C — Driving and classifieds (Mondays)
Saturday
- Section A — Local, national and international news
- Section B — Saturday Extra: Feature stories and opinion columns, editorials, editorial cartoon, letters to the editor
- Section C — Business news and weather
- Section D — Sports
- Section E — Culture
- Section F — Homefront, classified, working
- Section G — Travel
- Section H — Weekend Life
- Section W — Diversions
Editors-in-chief
- Mark Harrison (1977–1989)[18]
- Norman Webster (1989–1993)[19]
- Joan Fraser (1993–1996)[20]
- Alan Allnutt (1996–2000)
- Peter Stockland (2000–2004)
- Andrew Phillips (2004–2009)[21]
- Raymond Brassard (2010–2013)[22]
- Lucinda Chodan (2013–2022)[22]
- Bert Archer (2022–2023)[23]
- Marilena Lucci (2023–Present)
Present personalities
- Mike Boone
- Bill Brownstein
- Josh Freed
- L. Ian MacDonald
- Terry Mosher (Aislin)
- Joseph A. Schwarcz
- Jack Todd
Past personalities
See also
Montreal newspapers:
- La Presse
- Le Devoir
- Le Journal de Montréal
- Métro
- The Montreal Herald(defunct)
- Montreal Daily News (defunct)
- The Montreal Star(defunct)
References
- ^ a b c "Contact Us". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- for the six months ending September 30, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
- ^ a b c "About Us". The Gazette. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Galarneau, Claude (1979). "MESPLET, FLEURY". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. 4. University of Toronto / Université Laval. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- ^ Dougherty, Kevin (January 28, 2017). "Meet the man trying to pull Quebec into Trump's America – iPolitics". iPolitics. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
- . Retrieved July 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e "Montreal Gazette / La Gazette de Montréal en 1785" (in French). Vieux-Montréal. April 22, 2002. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ Moir Ferres, James (April 25, 1849). "The Disgrace of Great Britain accomplished!". Wikisource. Retrieved April 25, 2012.
- ^ Ste-Croix, Lorne. "Ferres James Moir". Dictionary Of Canadian Biography. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
- ^ "The master of the gentle barb". Montreal Gazette. September 20, 2007. Archived from the original on November 9, 2015. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
- ^ a b Porter, Jessica. "Montreal Gazette". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on August 2, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
- ^ "Document Doubles" in "Detecting the Truth: Fakes, Forgeries and Trickery". Archived October 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ Dobby, Christine (April 30, 2013). "Postmedia eliminates publisher positions as part of wider restructuring". National Post. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ "Postmedia outsourcing Gazette printing to Transcontinental". Global News. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
- ^ "Montreal Gazette outsources printing, closes NDG plant". CTV Montreal. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
- ^ Faguy, Steve (October 21, 2014). "Montreal Gazette redesigns paper, launches new website and iPad and smartphone apps". Fagstein. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
- ^ Lucci, Lenie (December 1, 2023). "Editor's Note: The Gazette continues to report the truth in changing times". The Gazette.
- ^ Hustak, Alan (April 3, 2007). "Gazette's former editor-in-chief dies". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ Wells, Paul (June 8, 2009). "The last two paragraphs of Norman Webster's May 29 Montreal Gazette column". Maclean's. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ "Senator Joan Fraser — Liberal Party of Canada". Senate of Canada. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ Faguy, Steve (April 30, 2009). "Andrew Phillips to leave The Gazette". Fagstein. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ a b "Note to readers: Raymond Brassard leaves Gazette". Montreal Gazette. August 30, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
- ^ "Bert Archer named editor in chief of the Montreal Gazette". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
External links
- Official website
- Official mobile website. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
- Digital microfilm archive 1878–1986 from Google newsarchive
- Bicentennial issue